SMFoLD Streaming 3D Media

Interest in 3D viewing has grown significantly over the last few years with the resurgence of Virtual Reality (VR), the future promise of Augmented Reality (AR), and the hastening pace of volumetric and light field display technology development. The generation of 3D data is also growing at an exponential rate. Enormous stores of 3D datasets are created by nearly every major industry in the world from imaging devices used in medicine (CT, MRI, PET, ultrasound) to sensors used by the military (SAR, LIDAR), recording systems used for motion picture production (plenoptic cameras and multi-camera arrays), and computer generated graphics for science, engineering, and entertainment.

Much of this 3D data is available for streaming from the cloud. However, no standard method yet exists for streaming the 3D data to the many emerging disparate 3D display types. Of particular interest to government agencies is the streaming of 3D sensor data to Field of Light Display (FoLD) systems. Third Dimension Technologies, in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Insight Media, and with support from the Air Force Research Laboratories, is leading an effort to establish the Streaming Media Field of Light Display (SMFoLD) standard. A preliminary SMFoLD architecture has been defined that will form the basis for further development, stakeholder refinement, and eventual adoption as an international open standard for use by both Government and Industry in 3D Streaming Media applications.

C. E. (Tommy) Thomas, PhD, Founder and Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Third Dimension Technologies (TDT)

Dr. Thomas has been working with holography, lasers and electro-optics design for more than 30 years (since 1972). Dr. Thomas holds a PhD in Plasma Physics (holography thesis) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, 1980, and is the inventor of the Holographic Angular Slice 3D Display (HAS3D). Research since 2003 includes development of the HAS3D and research on digital holography as a fast, high-resolution fusion-plasma electron density and plasma facing component erosion diagnostic. Prior to TDT, Dr. Thomas was a co-founder of nLine Corporation where he developed holographic image acquisition technology that allows extremely accurate measurement of semiconductor features to one percent of the laser wavelength used for measurement. More recently, Dr. Thomas has been working with the Air Force Research Lab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Insight Media on the development of a streaming standard for field of light displays (SMFoLD).